Explaining the stringency of environmental policies: Domestic determinants or international policy coordination?

Isabelle Cadoret () and Fabio Padovano ()
Additional contact information
Isabelle Cadoret: CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Fabio Padovano: CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, ROMA TRE - Università degli Studi Roma Tre = Roma Tre University

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: This paper examines how and to what extent spatial interactions among EU national governments affect the stringency of environmental policies (EP). We innovate on the literature along three dimensions: 1) we evaluate the spatial interactions across countries to assess the "interaction dividend" associated with international treaties; 2) we better examine how political and institutional variables shape EP when such interactions are taken into account; 3) we identify the type of EP for which these interactions play a more relevant role by considering for the first time the new EPS21 disaggregated indexes of policy stringency. In a sample of 21 European countries between 2000 and 2018, a benchmark model shows that, among country-specific effects, proxies for the industries' lobbying power, quality of governance, government's ideology, decentralization and the urbanization rate of voters play important roles. When the model consider spatial interactions among countries, the estimates reveal that between 1/3 and more than one-half of a country's commitment to EP can be attributed to positive spillover effects from other countries, depending on the type of policy, with more prominent effects in technology support policies. These results reinforce the need of supranational coordination through international organizations and treaties.

Keywords: Environmental policy stringency; Spatial interactions; International policy coordination; Regulatory quality; Decentralization; Voters; Special interest groups (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04721443v1
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in European Journal of Political Economy, 2024, 85, pp.102596. ⟨10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2024.102596⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04721443

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2024.102596

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().